All histories of Hollywood are wrong. Why? Two words: Colonel Selig. This early pioneer laid the foundation for the movie industry that we know today. Active from 1896 to 1938, William N. Selig was ...responsible for an amazing series of firsts, including the first two-reel narrative film and the first two-hour narrative feature made in America; the first American movie serial with cliffhanger endings; the first westerns filmed in the West with real cowboys and Indians; the creation of the jungle-adventure genre; the first horror film in America; the first successful American newsreel (made in partnership with William Randolph Hearst); and the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles. Selig was also among the first to cultivate extensive international exhibition of American films, which created a worldwide audience and contributed to American domination of the medium.
In this book, Andrew Erish delves into the virtually untouched Selig archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library to tell the fascinating story of this unjustly forgotten film pioneer. He traces Selig's career from his early work as a traveling magician in the Midwest, to his founding of the first movie studio in Los Angeles in 1909, to his landmark series of innovations that still influence the film industry. As Erish recounts the many accomplishments of the man who first recognized that Southern California is the perfect place for moviemaking, he convincingly demonstrates that while others have been credited with inventing Hollywood, Colonel Selig is actually the one who most deserves that honor.
In Vitagraph , Andrew A. Erish provides the
first comprehensive examination and reassessment of the company
most responsible for defining and popularizing the American movie.
This history challenges ...long-accepted Hollywood mythology that
simply isn't true: that Paramount and Fox invented the feature
film, that Universal created the star system, and that these
companies, along with MGM and Warner Bros., developed motion
pictures into a multi-million-dollar business. In fact, the truth
about Vitagraph is far more interesting than the myths that later
moguls propagated about themselves.
Established in 1897 by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith,
Vitagraph was the leading producer of motion pictures for much of
the silent era. Vitagraph established America's studio system, a
division of labor utilizing specialized craftspeople and artists,
including a surprising number of women and minorities, whose
aesthetic innovations have long been incorporated into virtually
all commercial cinema. They developed fundamental aspects of the
form and content of American movies, encompassing everything from
framing, lighting, and performance style to emphasizing
character-driven comedy and drama in stories that respected and
sometimes poked fun at every demographic of Vitagraph's vast
audience. The company overcame resistance to multi-reel motion
pictures by establishing a national distribution network for its
feature films. Vitagraph's international distribution was even more
successful, cultivating a worldwide preference for American movies
that endures to the present. For most of its existence America's
most influential studio was headquartered in Brooklyn, New York
before relocating to Hollywood.
Finally, here is a historically rigorous and thorough account of
the most influential producer of American motion pictures during
the silent era. Drawing on valuable primary material long
overlooked by other historians, Erish introduces readers to the
fascinating, forgotten pioneers of Vitagraph.
Few would deny that Alfred Hitchcock was the most recognizably famous motion picture director of the twentieth century. This was largely due to the popularity of his films, the cameo appearances he ...made in each of his talkies, but perhaps most of all, the result of his ubiquitous presence as the host of 361 episodes of an internationally successful television show bearing his name: the half-hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965). Ironically, it appears that Hitchcock's television work is the least-documented component of his career. Here, Erish examines five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to examine key aspects of the director's television career: how episodes directed by Hitchcock both compliment and depart from his motion picture work; the importance of Hitchcock's wraparound comments on the individual narratives; and how the program contributed to his status as an auteur.
1914–1918 Andrew A. Erish
Vitagraph,
06/2021
Book Chapter
Beginning in January 1914, Vitagraph altered its weekly release schedule so that two of the six productions were now two reels in length. This was in addition to the three-reel feature films the ...company had been making periodically since May 1912, when General Film initiated a separate service to distribute three-thousand-foot films intact. These contained more complex stories and characters, as well as richer production design, and thus were more expensive to make than single- and two-reel productions.
Despite the ongoing efforts of Vitagraph and Selig to expand the complexity and length of their films, most nickelodeon operators remained steadfast
1875–1904 Andrew A. Erish
Vitagraph,
06/2021
Book Chapter
Two English-born Americans founded the Vitagraph Company of America: James Stuart Blackton, born in Sheffield on January 4, 1875, and Albert Edward Smith, born five months later on June 4, 1875, in ...Faversham. They spent their formative years living 280 kilometers apart and wouldn’t meet until they were nineteen years old. By then both had relocated to the other side of the Atlantic in New York City, living within a few miles of each other.
James Blackton’s parents divorced within a month or two of his birth. In 1886, Blackton and his mother immigrated to America, eventually settling in Brooklyn.
Conclusion Andrew A. Erish
Vitagraph,
06/2021
Book Chapter
Vitagraph’s success was rooted in the knowledge gained by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith as vaudeville entertainers. Partnering different family-friendly performance skills made them more ...marketable. That same consideration guided the variety of films they made, which was fundamental in defining commercial cinema during its most prosperous era. That variety, stemming from their diversity of opinions, values, and talents, helped them reach a much larger audience than either man could have otherwise achieved alone.
Blackton was a humanist, raising daughter Marian to be “a nice little atheist.” He once said of The Battle Cry of Peace: “The purpose
1926 and Beyond Andrew A. Erish
Vitagraph,
06/2021
Book Chapter
Two months after purchasing Vitagraph, Warner Bros. acquired audio technology for synchronized sound in movies recently developed by Western Electric and Bell Laboratories. The familiar Vitagraph ...name was exploited in naming Warners’ new talking picture production arm the “Vitaphone Corporation.” The name change represented a fundamental shift in the emphasis of motion pictures over the next several years: no longer “life pictures” but now “living sounds.”
The new owners converted one of Vitagraph’s Brooklyn studios to a soundstage, but too much outside noise from automobile traffic and the elevated railroad leaked in, so new soundstages were built directly across the
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